The Points Don't Matter

Annotating, the act of adding notes or comments to texts, whether in printed books, digital documents, or handwritten notes, is often underestimated in its ability to boost learning. It's not merely a technique for marking up your materials; it's a powerful tool that can enhance comprehension, retention, and engagement with the content. In this blog post, we'll explore how annotating can significantly increase learning outcomes and why it's a skill worth introducing in your courses. Active Engagement with Content One of the critical advantages of annotating is that it transforms passive reading or listening into active engagement. When you annotate, you're no longer a passive recipient of information but an active participant in the learning process. This increased engagement helps you process and understand the material more effectively. Focus and Concentration Annotating encourages focus and concentration. As you interact with the text, your mind is less likely to...

Module learning outcomes are an optional, but valuable, part of course design for both educators and learners. Let’s look at what they are, and why they are important. Module learning outcomes (sometimes called objectives) are written to clarify and guide learning. They are statements of what the learner will be able to do after completing all components of instruction in the module. Module learning outcomes express the intentions of the module. They explain why the module exists—its purpose. They show learners a reason to engage with the material in that module. Module learning outcomes also relate directly to one or more of the reasons to take the course in the first place—the course competencies . Before we get any further into the value of creating module learning outcomes, let’s back up and mention where these module learning outcomes come from. When enrolling in a course, students are “promised” that the course will offer the opportunity to learn a list of things—that list is ca...

In today's digital era, online learning has taken center stage and the importance of creating appealing content for your courses cannot be overstated. Video, in particular, has emerged as the "gold standard" for online course content due to its multi-sensory nature, allowing students to both see and hear the material, making it more captivating and memorable. If you're hesitant about recording video content for your online course, fear not! You don't need expensive equipment or extensive on-camera experience to produce high-quality videos. In fact, you can do it all from the comfort of your home and even enjoy the process. By following these four steps, you'll be on your way to creating professional-looking videos that your online students will love. Step #1: Gather Your Gear When it comes to your video recording setup, having the right equipment can make a significant difference. You don't need a professional studio or pricey gear to create effective onli...

  Higher education often assumes that our students can figure out how the skills they learn in one context transfer to a different one. This assumption is faulty, and it’s not because our students aren’t smart enough, it’s because they aren’t content matter experts and learning experts. The same is true for us in unfamiliar areas. It isn’t clear to students that the same skill an English essay builds–written communication–will help them learn to write a clear and concise lab report in biology, or a business proposal in their future job. Think back to algebra, were you a wiz, or did you struggle trying to figure out the relevance of learning those equations? Did you know that learning algebra could help you do your job as a purchasing agent, forest ranger, or a financial advisor? Probably not. If you did, you may have paid more attention to learning algebra. One way to help students understand the relevance of an assignment is to add specific language to assignment instructions show...

The Completion By Design Loss/Momentum Framework helps colleges take a systems-level view and  identify where students stumble, become sidetracked, and drop out of college. One core idea of this framework is that the points where students struggle to proceed are shared by many students and are discoverable. These points are called loss points . SCC decided to apply the Loss/Momentum Framework at the course level and coach faculty in their own discovery process. This course-level view examines places in a specific course where students stop participating or drop (loss points) and places where they deeply engage (momentum points). The perfect scenario is to flip a loss point to a momentum point through interventions like better scaffolding, clearer feedback, communication about expectations, personal conversation with students, and more. We know some loss points are generic across courses--we tend to lose students at the 3-6 week time frame in a standard semester long course, or im...

Struggle is a critical component of the learning process, according to a wealth of research in the field of educational psychology. Studies have shown that students who experience cognitive struggle during learning tasks, such as solving complex problems or grappling with challenging concepts, tend to retain information better and develop more robust mental models of the material (VanLehn, Siler, Murray, Yamauchi, & Baggett, 2003). Struggling also helps students build resilience and develop a growth mindset, which can lead to improved academic and workplace performance (Dweck, 2006). Overcoming obstacles, allows us to gain a sense of accomplishment and confidence in our abilities. Our current generation of students need that confidence. “Zoomers” or “iGen” (born approximately 1995- 2012, currently 13-27 years old) are dominated by safety concerns and intimidated by risk taking. These are not students who like to “take a shot” at something and struggle. They don’t mind hard work, bu...

It's here, so let’s just talk about it. Are you reading robot essays? When you ask students to paraphrase, are they secretly laughing? Maybe, but maybe not completely…yet. Change is happening fast though. The elephant in the room is ChatGPT and its peers. ChatGPT was released for public use as a prototype on November 30, 2022. It is a large language model trained artificial intelligence (AI). It is the newest, flashiest, text-generating AI around, but there are many other AI text-generating tools out there that have been here for a while. ChatGPT finally grabbed the attention these tools deserve. ChatGPT is going to get better fast with the improvements gained through opening up use of this tool to the world. Articles and podcasts are now popping up daily about AI writing tools, and people are worried about the next generation’s ability to write. But hold on, let’s learn a little more about these tools before we go there. According to Nick Duncan on ContentBot.ai “An AI writer is...